The Aftermath
by mariteri
Summary: A lone young woman sitting in the waiting room catches House's attention. Curious as to her story, Greg starts investigating her. Completely A.U. Set after book seven of Harry Potter, EWE. Clueless as the what season of House, M.D. (sorry about that). Rated T for language
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Hello! Hope everyone is doing well. This here is a little crossover that came to mind and wouldn't leave me alone until it was written. Needless to say it is very alternative universe for both fandoms. Enjoy!**

**Please read and review!**

**…**

**Chapter One**

Dr. Greg House was a man who noticed things, but even he had to admit that a malnourished teen wearing dirty, torn clothing that was also covered in blood was hard to miss. She sat quietly staring out into space, looking far too world weary for a girl of…what? Seventeen? Eighteen? Her left arm was crudely bandaged and it needed changing from the looks of it. He went over to her and stood there until she looked straight at him.

Her face was covered in dirt and it looked far too thin. Her eyes narrowed for an instant as she judged whether he was a threat to her, he was sure. She leaned back, waiting for him to speak.

"You caught my attention," he told her to which she only arched her brow. "Let me guess, you've been in a movie and all that blood is makeup."

A man cleared his throat behind House, calling both of their attention. She stood up and stepped around him, going over to the man. He turned to see her going straight over to Dr. Patil, who if he remembered correctly was on loan from a hospital in England.

"How are they?" she asked, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"They're holding their own," he said, taking note of House. "Now let's take care of you, shall we?"

"Will they live?" she asked, sounding panicked as she inquired.

He smiled softly. "You acted quickly enough, Miss Granger. They'll live, I'm sure…" The doctor was barely able to catch her.

It had been with no ease whatsoever that House ended up kneeling on the floor next to her. Dr. Patil yelled for his nurses even as House went over and quickly turned her to her side, as it was clear that the girl was seizing. When he got a better look at her, he let out a hiss at all the cuts on her back and what looked like a clear knife wound on her chest.

"She was tortured." He looked at the doctor next to him, who was now looking at him.

"Chances are that she was," Dr. Patil answered. "Now pardon me, Dr. House, I need to take care of my patient." He looked to his nurses and another doctor that had joined them as well. "Let's get her away!"

Between all of them the managed to get her onto a gurney and away before House could even come close to asking for a hand up. That was how Dr. James Wilson found him five minutes later.

"What are you on your knees for?" Wilson asked him, almost not wanting to hear what the man had to say.

"I was thinking about asking Cuddy to marry me, but then I thought being married to my boss would be a pain in the ass…"

Waving his hands, James said, "Fine, don't tell me. But do you need a hand up?"

"I'd thought you'd never ask," House said, and took his friend's offered arm. Thinking over what he had seen, he asked, "By any chance do you know what Dr. Patil's specialty is?"

Wilson frowned, saying, "I can't say as I do. Lisa said it was highly specialized, but didn't say what it was exactly. Why?"

"Because his new patient intrigues me." He went over to the chair she had been sitting in, as he pulled out his cellphone and called Eric. "Yeah, life sucks. Get down to the first floor waiting room just outside of the clinic and bring your brothers and sister as well…" He looked over to a now very curious Wilson. "You're going to be collecting samples down here and testing them." He paused. "Because I said so." And he hung up his cell. "There are days I love being the king."

His friend only rolled his eyes and went on his way.

...

House knew next to nothing about the young woman. And the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. His staff had collected her blood, dirt samples, as well as a few mystery fluids—one of which managed to burn through the swab that had wiped it up as well as the interior glass of the container it was in. When he had seen it, he frowned and said nothing other than test it. Hours past and he was sure that the team had done the testing, but none of them had come over to tell him the results, which only made him all the more frustrated.

Finally they came over, Cutner standing in the middle of the pack with 13 looking like she was about to burst out of her own skin and Taub just looking resigned, but to what, House didn't know.

When none of them spoke, He stopped playing with his large tennis ball and snapped, "What?!"

"The soil samples, though interesting due to the fact that they could have only come from a small region of Scotland, it was the blood samples and that mystery fluid that proved to be far more so," came from Cutner, handing him the test results. "Only a small amount of the blood collected from the chair was hers. The rest belonged to no fewer than five other people."

House's lips compressed as he looked at the blood test results. "Two men and three women," he muttered, looking over the blood results.

"House," 13 said, stepping forward. "One of the men was almost completely bled dry! And on top of that, there were large traces of that same corrosive venom in the man's system."

"Venom?" he asked, not looking up.

"It's a compound that should never exist…" Taub said, only to have Cutner and 13 glaring at him.

"Doesn't mean that it couldn't be made and you know it," Cutner told him, looking over to House. "It's a compound I doubt even you've seen." Their boss looked up sharply to them. "Python, spitting cobra, and black mamba."

He sat back, looking stunned.

"It gets weirder," 13 told him. "By all accounts, it wasn't just mixed up in a lab." She leaned in closer. "There's a snake that has that as venom."

"No fucking way," House breathed, only to have 13 take the papers from him. She flipped to the test in question and pointed to the results. "That isn't just a compound, it's a DNA stamp as well. The proteins are working together to have a very fatal bite." She stood up straight.

"How do you figure that?" House asked.

"Explain the python proteins," she demanded. "The snake is an enormous beast when in the wild, but they aren't poisonous. Cobras, though large, don't have the heft of a python. And the same goes for the black mamba. But what they both have are poisons that are very deadly." Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "I think someone bred a demon snake and we are looking at remnants of its venom."

He looked back down to the test results and muttered, "What fucking nightmare did I run into?"

**TBC…**

**…**

**And there you go the first chapter is out to you. Review to let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Hello once again. Thank you to everyone that took the time to review, follow and favorite this story. It means more than I can say. Here's another chapter.**

**Please read, do something silly, have fun doing it, enjoy it all, and review!**

**…**

**Chapter Two**

House had a new patient, but even so he couldn't stop thinking about that young woman and the mystery she had brought into his life. Tortured, ran across a nightmare of a snake that he seriously doubted was created anywhere but in a mad scientist's lab, and at least one of the victims of said snake and four others who were there for what reason he knew not. All in all, he had himself a mystery and a half and he still didn't know what the hell was going on. But then he asked himself the one thing that nearly stopped him cold.

Did he really want to know?

"I heard you had a new patient," Wilson said, as he joined him in his office. "Taub was complaining that he didn't think it was cancer, but 13…"

"It's rickets," he muttered. "Cutner is verifying it."

Wilson blinked at him. "That's it?"

He looked at him, his eyes a hard blue. "Sometimes the easiest solution, though very boring for myself, is the answer. What time is it?"

Wilson looked at him with an arched brow muttering, "Lunch time, which is why I'm here. What's going on with you? Usually you come to my office to remind me about lunch, not the other way around."

House got to his feet, limping over to the door to his office. "Then lunch it is! I'm not going to be waiting for you forever you know."

Rolling his eyes, Wilson followed him out without another word about work.

...

House had no sooner sat down, placing his lunch on the table when he saw her. She was dressed in two hospital gowns, as well as a tattered faded blue terrycloth robe that he could have sworn he saw in lost and found along with a pair of miss matched slippers. Her left arm was in a sling and it looked like she had managed to get some sleep, but not much. What intrigued him was the fact she was smoking. She hadn't struck him as being one, but that's when he smelled it.

"Hmm, I think I just found my new best friend," he said, as he got up and went over to where she was sitting.

"What…Oh, yeah, that explains everything." He frowned then. "A bit." And ended up following him to see what his friend was up to.

"Hello again," House said to her, sitting across from her and putting his tray down. "Please don't tell me that you aren't the kind not to share. That's just rude."

She leaned back and just stared at him, saying nothing before looking over to Wilson. "Dr. Wilson."

"Miss Granger," he said casually, making House look over to him sharply. "As the head of Oncology, I had to provide her with her medical marijuana." He looked back over to her. "It's helping?"

Hermione smiled and nodded. She was about to speak when House cut off whatever it was she was going to say.

"Don't you ever speak?" he snapped.

"Don't you ever shut up?" she shot right back at him. "Do you really have something to say or do you like the sound of your own voice?"

That had him shocked to say the least. At least now he had one answer. "British?"

"Very. And you? I'm guessing Chicago with hints of Egypt and the orient, specifically Japan." House blinked at her in shock before his face shut down.

"Who told you?" he demanded.

"Your voice did." She took a puff of her medical weed and let it out slowly. "You must have been in these locations during your formative years when you were still developing your language skills." She then went on to tell him where in his linguistics that she plucked the information from, finishing with, "If you didn't want people to know, you should have taken elocution lessons." Hermione flicked ash into the ashtray on the table, before leaning back and looking at him. "You're not accustomed to others around you being able to decipher those around them like you do?" She was silent for a moment. "Most in this world can be unobservant, only looking for what they expect or want to see. You know that. But that doesn't make all of us blind or deaf, eh?" She took another hit of the pot and sighed it out. Rubbing her brow, she compressed her lips and stood up. Hermione put out the joint, putting what was left of it into a small plastic baggy with three others. "I must be off. I'm told that I'll be fed something halfway palatable. They're lying, of course, but they're trying to get me to eat. Dr. Wilson." She looked to House. "Dr. Intrusive Pain in the Arse."

It wasn't until she was back into the hospital that Wilson busted up laughing.

House looked over to him muttering, "Oh shut up. It wasn't that funny."

...

"Will you just bloody well shut up, Ronald!"

House stopped in his tracks and walked over to where he had heard the Granger girl snapping at someone. He stopped behind them and just watched and listen.

"Don't you get it?! I didn't do it for fame or recognition! They were going to die! And if I could have brought more with me, I would have!"

The redhead's face went a florid scarlet. "But why Snape? What did he ever do…"

"He saved us more times than I can count," she muttered. "He taught us to survive. Hate him all you like. Goodness knows I'll never change your mind. But you will respect him enough to call him either Mr. Snape or Professor Snape. Because say what you will, he has more than earned that much especially from the likes of you."

"You've gone nutters!" he exclaimed only to have her slam her fist into his nose.

The tall redhead stumbled back, grabbing his face.

It was then that she saw House watching them. Straightening herself up, she said, "Go visit your brother, Ronald. I've had more than my fill of your obnoxious behavior to last me a good long time."

She walked past House with her head held high, as she did so and greeted, "Doctor."

"Patient," he said, with a casual nod of his head. He looked over to the tall redhead, who was barely able to hold in the blood now dripping down his face. "Ouch. That looked like it hurt. She has an excellent right jab. Great form."

"Help me!" Ron demanded.

"Oh, I'm not that kind of doctor. I diagnose people." He went up to him, took down the other man's hand, looked the nose over and added, "That's broken alright!" And House walked away with a grin growing on his face.

**TBC…**

**…**

**And that's another chapter in the finish file! Thank you to everyone that took the time to read, reviewed, and follow/favorited. This means ever so much to me that you did so. Spps! Here's some cookies! Don't tell anyone! LOL! Have a spectacular day everyone.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Here's the next chapter in our very short saga. Hope you like it.**

**Read! Wave your hands in the air! Wave them like you just don't care! Enjoy and have a good laugh! Review!**

**…**

**Chapter Three**

"Why couldn't you allow me the one thing I wanted and let me die?"

How was it that he always found her at moments like this, House asked himself, as he looked over to see her sitting next to a man that whose neck was wrapped up like a mummy and could barely articulate the few words he could say. The man's black eyes were shining brightly with anger as she stared him down.

"I wanted to die!" he sneered at her.

"You want to know?" she inquired. "Really?"

"Yes," he hissed.

"It's simple," she told him. "Death is too easy. And life, well, that's a battle that I personally will be fighting a good long time." She stood up. "And if I'm going to do it, I'm dragging along everyone else I can think of for the ride—including you. Because I'll be fucked sideways if I'll go through it alone."

The man was silent a moment before he let out a snort that was a mix of disbelief and straight out dry, sarcastic humor. "Don't lie. You're not good at it, Miss Granger." He took a few deep breaths. "Your hero complex is showing."

This time it was she that snorted. "Really, Mr. Snape, I'm not a hero. Foolish, perhaps, but not a hero." Absently she rubbed at her left arm. "Remus and Tonks will be released soon."

"You saved them as well, I suppose?" he asked, his voice as dry as the desert.

"No, that was Ginny and Luna." He looked at her in disbelief. "Say what you will, Mr. Snape, but there was only so much I could do to help out." When all he did was arch his brow, she added, "I only provided the ride over."

He let out a hum of thought, but said nothing else.

"Have you had enough sun?" she asked him.

"Yes, by god, get me inside. I do think that I have taken in more sunlight in the past hour than I have in the past five years," he muttered.

"Oh yes, heaven forbid you actually have color in your cheeks or dare I say it, a sufficient amount of vitamin D," she said with the same dry tone the other man had used.

The man she was pushing in the wheelchair smiled, if you could call it that. The man's thin hard lips twisted ever so slightly. Not enough to call it true happiness or joy, but enough so to let others around him know that he wasn't unhappy either.

"Dr. House," Hermione said, calling his attention to her. "Professor Snape, this is one of the doctors of this fine institution. I do believe that Dr. Wilson said that he was in charge of diagnosing mystery illnesses when no one knows what they have."

House looked over to the professor, who was watching him intensely with the hardest, blackest eyes he had ever seen. That is not a man to be messed with was the only thing he could think of. Looking back over to Hermione, he found her smiling at him.

"His name is Dr. House," she introduced him. "Dr. House, this is Professor Severus Snape, headmaster of the school I attended in Scotland."

"Scotland? That's a long way away," House said, but neither one of them said a thing in turn nor did their faces didn't give away a thing of what they were thinking. "Did you know that you both could play poker professionally?"

"Hmm, for some quick cash it would be okay," Hermione answered thoughtfully. "But overall would be painfully boring."

"Given your head for numbers, Miss Granger, you'd be able to cheat them out of their hard earned coin and come up with the solution to string theory at the same time," Snape said casually.

She tilted her head in contemplation. "It would all depend on the theory you were speaking of, of course." House blinked at her in shock. "Not that it matters. Physics is not my cup of tea after all. Give me the pure thrill and excitement of the science of sciences, I say. Give me the numbers, the formulas, and the irrationality of pi any day of the week." She looked at her watch. "I best get us both inside. We both have medicine and lunch coming within the next ten minutes. And I still need to contact Harry again about picking up Remus and Tonks tomorrow. With any luck whatsoever, he'll bring something edible with him." She nodded to House and began to walk again, pushing Professor Snape. "I know that the hospital wants us to know that we're in one, but must they remind us with the food, I ask? Personally, I would have thought that the pain, the medications, and the constant question of, 'And how are we today?' was enough."

The last thing House heard of them was a snort of dry humor coming from the headmaster. Went to a boarding school in Scotland, he filed away in his mind's file along with the fact that she was a very smart woman. Perhaps not as smart as himself, but she was obviously very bright. But the questions now were just how it was that she saved these people and why in the world did she bring them here? Letting out a long suffering sigh, he went on a trek over to the only person he could think of that would have answers.

...

Lisa Cuddy took one look at him and said straight out, "No."

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask!"

She arched her brow and said sarcastically, "You mean I need to know? Usually you pull something out of your ass to tell me, even if you do have a legitimate query in the first place. This way I'm saving both of our time and cutting you off at the pass as it were. Now if you please excuse me…"

He pulled her to stop, leaning in close and asked, "What is Dr. Patil's specialty?"

Frowning she said, "Since when did anyone else's work concern you if you don't need their help?"

"Call me overly curious, but I at least want to know the specialty of a man that not even Wilson can say knows. And he knows everyone's business!"

Rolling her eyes, she said, "If you must know…"

"That goes without saying," he injected.

"Exotic creature bites. He's here on loan from a teaching hospital in London for a year. Why? Because we're also a teaching hospital and he wants others to learn from him as he in turn learns from us. Good enough for you?" When he was about to say the negative, she cut him off with, "Excellent! I have to do something you might not have heard of. It's called work." Cuddy walked away without another word.

**TBC…**

**…**

**And that is another chapter by the way side. Thanks so much for reading, reviewing, and following/favoriting. I get a charge out of the alerts I get letting me know. Take care and have a blissful day.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Here we are again. Another chapter is out!**

**Please read, sing loudly, attempt to stay on key, laugh even if you don't, enjoy, and review!**

**…**

**Chapter Four**

**_SLAM!_**

House and Wilson looked over to Hermione who was pressed up against the door, looking rather frazzled. Her hair which was usually controlled chaos was a wild mass of crazed curls that House could have sworn was snapping off sparks.

"Doctors," she said, after taking a deep breath. "I am so sorry to intrude on your private meeting. But let me assure you that by allowing me to stay that although you may not be saving a life, you are saving my sanity." She sat down next to House. "That's a consequence of dealing with idiots and absolute fools."

House tilted his head and inquired, "Ronald?"

She nodded to this. "I want to go to university and gain my mastery and what does he do? He proposes marriage! I'm eighteen! I have a life to live before I even think about marriage!" She paused, leaning back and muttering, "I think I'd be less angry if he bothered to ask me on a date first." Both the men winced at her last words.

It was during that next quiet moment that House took note that she was clutching her left hand. He reached over and took her hand into his own, attempting to get her to unclench her hand.

"What happened?" House asked her.

"Which time?" she inquired, having him look at her sharply. "I had a mad woman carve into my arm with a knife. It's obviously still healing and when I was going to walk away from Ron, he grabbed it rather hard and pulled me back over to him." She turned her arm, looking at the blood that was seeping into the bandaging covering it. "I best get back over to see Dr. Patil. With any luck I won't have to be restricted to bed again."

"You were restricted to bed?" House asked.

She stood up. "An order given, doesn't mean an order taken." Hermione peaked out into the hallway. "Thank you again!" And she rushed out.

House got up and ended up following her out of the office. But only so far, he began looking around for Ronald. And when he found him, he went straight over to him.

"You," he said, his voice hard. Ronald blinked at him in surprise and faint recognition. "Haven't you been taught not to grab the injured arm of someone you supposedly care for?"

"What?" A stout woman from next to Ron snapped. "What did you do, Ronald?"

"He reopened Miss Granger's arm injury," House told her. The woman proceeded to hit the boy over the head with her purse.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" she shrilled at him.

"But Mum!"

"Don't you 'But Mum' me young man! What possessed you to grab her injured arm?! You know what pain she's in every day and now this?!" Standing up straighter, she ordered, "Go to the home Harry rented."

"But…"

"Now!" she cut him off.

Head lowering, he muttered complaints as he walked away. The older woman looked over to House. "Thank you so much for letting me know what had happened. That girl would never have said a word and Ronald would have thought he was in the clear, I'm sure." She held out her hand to him. "I'm Molly Weasley, Ronald is my youngest son."

He shook her hand briefly. "Just how many children do you have?"

"Seven," she said proudly. "Six boys and one girl."

"Wow." He barely was able to resist putting his foot into it. "Now pardon me, but I have a patient about to bleed out from a place he isn't supposed to."

"Oh dear," she breathed, and the group watched him limping away.

...

"I'm telling you that she had the word, 'Mudblood' carved into her arm," Cutner told the others as House walked into the meeting room. "And no matter how many times they tried to sew the skin together, it wasn't working. I suggested crazy glue. Dr. Patil told me that they'd let me know if it works out or not."

House's cane came up and was pointing straight over to Cutner. "Whom are you speaking of?"

"Uh, Hermione Granger," he said startled. "Why?"

He stood there for a moment saying nothing before a loud very harsh, "Fuck!" startling all of his fellows even as he spun on his heel and left the room in search of the young woman.

It was a fully agitated House that found James in his office. Leaning over the desk, he snarled, "Why didn't you tell me that they were from the wizarding world?"

Taking a deep breath, the other man stared at him intently but said nothing.

"Nothing? Really? Don't you think it would have been wise to let me into what's going on around here before I could have blundered it?"

"How did you find out?"

"Cutner saw the word carved into her arm," House replied. "Mudblood isn't what any would call a popular insult among the general non-magical population."

James nodded. "Very true. The question now is, what are you going to do?"

"Find out where in this place that they have the magical medical wing and help heal those we can."

"That's very…unlike you," Wilson said, as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, but I have questions and I'm not going to be getting any answers standing around here."

Soon enough they were able to find what they were looking for and got into the magical wing of the hospital a short time later. The moment the breeched the magical barrier, they heard a blood curdling scream emanate from up ahead of them.

"My God," Wilson whispered. "What…"

"Remember that cursed knife I told you was plunged into my thigh?" Wilson nodded in horror. "Chances are that one was used to carve into her arm."

"House, the only cursed knife I know of belonged to…"

"Yeah, but this is a large world," he told him tightly. "And there's more than one cursed knife in the world." His lips pinched. "Let's go."

It took them five minutes for them to find her, not out of any skill though. They, in essence, followed the screams. Once in the room, he shoved Dr. Patil aside.

"They used a cursed knife on her," he muttered. "Essence of dittany isn't going to work." He looked into the other doctor's eyes. "The only thing it'll do is burn out her nerve endings even as it's sealing her skin and that's if she's lucky." He pulled out his wand from the handle of his cane. "That's not to say that this isn't going to hurt. It is. So putting her into a magical sleep would be an excellent idea right now."

"Now hold on just one minute…" Dr. Patil started only to be interrupted by the last person he thought would do so.

"Do as he says," came hoarsely from Hermione. "Please."

"But…" the man started only to have Hermione manage to struggle into sitting and grab the man's robes in her good hand and yank him down to her face level.

"You've been doing nothing but guess work and not very good guesses at that. At this point, I'd take help from a slug if it means I would be healed. You may very well know your exotic animal bites, but you haven't done me a good service, sir. Step aside and allow someone else the stage, least I find that blasted knife to teach you the hard way just how bad that fucking thing is and how highly thought out hypotheses don't add up to much when you're the bloody patient."

Letting him go, she fell back and was looking over to House. Panting she said, "Please tell me what you have planned. I would like to know that at lease before I sleep."

He pulled a rolling chair over and murmured, "The knife was cursed, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, that means that the curse itself is in your arm…" He paused and took an even breath, as he asked, "Is Bellatrix LeStrange still alive?"

"No," she breathed. "Molly killed her in the heat of battle."

"Good," he said, sounding relieved. "You're still going to have a scar. There's only so much that can be done. But you won't have pain and it won't be open…"

"Thank you for the explanation, sir, but really you do like hearing your own voice." She gave him a teasing smile.

Smiling, House murmured, "Good night." as Wilson put her into a magical sleep.

**TBC…**

**…**

**And there you go, another chapter sailing away on the Internet sea. Thanks for reading, reviewing, and following/favoriting! Take care and have yourselves a sensational day.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Hello! Here we are at our next chapter. Hope you enjoy it.**

**Please read, sing a Christmas song to mess with someone's head (This was posted in the middle of October), chuckle over the silliness of it all, enjoy, and review.**

**…**

**Chapter Five**

Hermione woke up slowly. The room was dark and she could feel someone holding her right hand. Blinking slowly, she looked over to see Harry stilling there patiently watching her with a small smile. He reached out and combed her hair out of her face.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her quietly.

"Okay," she sighed, looking around. Flowers and balloons along with cards with well wishes occupied half the room. "Who…" She looked over to Harry, who was now laughing to himself.

"The Weasleys fell in love with the gift store and bought everything that they could get their hands on before Ginny and I managed to get them out of there."

Hermione grinned at that, as she sat up. Carefully she lifted her left arm and looked at the harsh scar left behind. It was ugly and brought back terror, but it was now healed and it no longer hurt as it once did. She was going to have to live with it for the rest of her days, but at least now the pain stopped. Letting out a long sigh, she looked over to Harry who was watching her intently.

"I want to go visit Fred," she told him.

George let them into the room and soon enough Hermione was curling up next to Fred, murmuring to him that he had to wake up soon or he was going to miss the best prank ever.

"By you?" he asked weakly. "I wouldn't miss it."

Lifting her head, she looked at him startled. This had them all laughing.

"When did you wake up?" Hermione demanded.

"This gimp came in and groused about the quality of magical medicine if they couldn't even fix a person suffering from a concussive spell that didn't even hit him directly," George told her. "He sat him up, poured a couple of potions down his throat, sleeping beauty here woke and he left. I heard that the healer went straight over to Snape and the two had an argument that I'm sure even Dumbledore heard on the other side of the veil!"

"He healed him as well?" Hermione inquired.

"Yes, but only to a point," Harry said, sounding sad about this. "The venom is still there and needs to be worked out over time with the anti-venom is what Dr. Patil told us."

She nodded, as she got up from the bed. Telling them that she wanted to check on Snape, she did so quickly before going out into the main part of the hospital. Finding him was easier than she thought it would be as he was arguing with a woman dressed in a very tight business suit and heels Hermione wagered the woman wore to detract others from looking at her intelligence or age—whichever came first in importance to the woman in question. She joined them, but said nothing as it was clear that they were still in mid-whatever it was going on. The woman looked over to her startled.

"Miss Granger," she said with a forced smile. "I'm glad to see that you're well enough to be up and about."

"Yes, I'm sure," Hermione replied rather dryly which gained a snort of laughter from House. "Dr. House, could you please join me for a private coffee? I'll pay."

"Add a muffin and a good story, and I'm all yours," he suggested.

"I'll just put it on my tab," she told him. "Goodness only knows what we already owe. A coffee and a muffin will seem a pittance, I'm sure."

"Mr. Potter has already taken care of all of the expenses incurred by those of your party here at the hospital," Cuddy told her.

Hermione nodded absently. "In true Harry style. And knowing him, he probably asked you to keep that information to yourself." The older woman's face went red. "I was right. You best be careful about that. That's the second time I've contemplated suing this hospital. Guess work doesn't medicine make and telling a confidence doesn't make you popular. Now, if you pardon us, this man obviously is in dire need of caffeine and sugar or else he would have come up with a better come back than the equivalent of, 'Show me your tits'."

Hermione was grinning, as she walked away with an evilly chuckling House following her.

Minutes later they were sitting across from each other a coffee in front of both of them as well as a chocolate chip muffin. Hermione picked at her baked good, gathering her thoughts.

"You're my doctor," she said quietly. "So if I tell you something in confidence in an attempt to ease my own stress, as it were…"

"By law I must keep your confidence," he assured her. "But I won't lie for you."

Leaning back, she answered, "I would never ask that of anyone." Sipping on her coffee, she sighed out, "Have you ever been a part of a war?"

He sat up all the taller. "A war?" She nodded. "No, though, I was asked to join up with some very evil individuals a time back."

"Bellatrix LeStrange?" she inquired to which he nodded. "It was before 1981."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"She was thrown into Azkaban in 1981," she informed him. "She escaped approximately four years ago along with most of the other death eaters held there as prisoners." Pulling out a velvet pouch, she placed it in front of herself as she went on with her story. "We had lost so many. I saw men and women that had fallen and died long before that final battle. And then it happened. We had expected it of course. It had been building to that finite moment. And the crescendo, though deadly, was nothing compared to the climax." She pulled out a paper, handing it over to him. "So very many died that day."

He unrolled the parchment and was shocked to see just how many names were on it.

"Men, women, and, heaven help us all, children died that day for what they believed was worth dying for."

He looked up at her to find absent tears falling freely.

"I was crushed by it all. My arm hurt beyond measure, I was still suffering the after effects of the cruciatus, and I could not seem to get beyond the thought that there had to be something that could be done to save at least a few people." She untied the small bag in front of her slowly. "I read book upon book searching day and night for an answer that…" She laughed softly. "That, oddly enough, I found the beginning of my answer to in a movie."

Hermione held out her left hand and poured the contents of the bag into it, revealing a timeturner.

"I cheated."

**TBC…**

**…**

**And there once again was our last chapter. Cookies of your choice goes out to those who make a guess at what movie I referenced at the end of the chapter. They'll be the good ones if you actually get it correct! LOL! Hope you liked it. Have a meditative day everyone.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Here's your next serving of the story! Ah man! No one, but no one tried to guess the movie. I was thinking of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. So I get all cookies!**

**Please read, savor your favorite sandwich, enjoy, and review!**

**…**

**Chapter Six**

"Holy shit," he breathed.

"Yes, holy shit in deed," she breathed. "I went back in time, not just once, but several times. If I could have saved more individuals, I would have. But I had only a limited number of times I could go and each visit had its own restrictions."

"How many times did you go back?" he asked quietly.

"Four times," she told him quietly. "I did the arithmancy and four was the limit no matter how many times I tried. And one of the times…" She took a very deep breath, letting it out shakily. "It came close to getting myself killed, but I saved him."

"Who?" he asked.

"Severus Tobias Snape," she told him. "One time death eater turned spy for the light. He risked everything he was for us all. He deserved far more than he's gotten out of this life so far and with any luck he'll reap all he desires and more now that this bloody war is over."

"And Fred?"

"He was hit by a wall as well as a spell no one saw coming or from whom. I did my calculations and was able to find out with the help of his brother's memories where the spell came from. It was just a matter of stopping the spell from being cast. Unfortunately, it wasn't the one that took out the wall, so he was still hit with it rather than that and the spell as well." She blushed and muttered, "At least the shielding charm held and kept him from being crushed to death."

"You were doing this on your own?"

"Up until the last trip," she told him. "Luna figured out what I had been doing and she and Ginny insisted on helping. I ended up saving more than I ever thought I would, because of their help. I took out Greyback before he could kill everyone that he did. The same for Dolohov." She took a sip of her coffee, wishing that she had stronger. "I hit Bellatrix LeStrange with a curse that made her just made her unable to think clearly that only lasted a minute. It gave Mrs. Weasley the advantage that she needed in the fight she was beginning to lose. It was all the time that I could spare, as I was running from one place to another and attempting not to be seen."

"It was all she needed apparently," he answered. "How many did you save?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Greyback was a pedophile werewolf, who killed without remorse or pity. And he like his boys very young." House turned green at her words. "And Dolohov was a mass murdering bastard, who wasn't picky as long as you had a pussy. That was enough for him."

"In other words, you saved countless people that day." She nodded to this. "Did you ever ask yourself if it was their times to die?"

"Every single minute, of every single day since we finished and came here," she told him hoarsely. "Did I do the right thing? I don't know. Do you think I played god by trying to help those people?"

"I don't know," he sighed. "But my answer doesn't matter. What do you think? Do you think you did?"

"Perhaps I did," she admitted, a hardness coming into her brown eyes. "If there's a forfeit, I'll pay it gladly. In doing what I did, I proved one thing beyond a doubt. I was very human in my response to loss of life and I did what I could to save those few that I could." She rubbed her face and muttered, "I didn't do it for reward or payment. I'm no hero, though I was being touted as one before I did what I did. No one other than you and I will ever know the full story of what happened."

"You said, Ginny and Luna…"

"They thought I only went once," she murmured. "I lied to them."

He nodded to this, as he watched her putting the timeturner away in the velvet bag. "You're not happy that you killed those men."

Thinking it over, she responded, "I did what I thought must be done for others to live. I'm not happy it had to be done, but I didn't see anyone else lining up for the job." A small smile came to her face. "There is one death that I'm sure both of us can and will agree on."

"Bellatrix," he muttered, his anger clear in his tones. "She came over here looking for pure bloods to join their cause. I told her that she was full of shit. Needless to say, she didn't like me much after that. I didn't know exactly how much until later. She stabbed me in the thigh with that knife of hers. It healed wrong and developed an infarction as a result. I nearly lost my leg. My friend and I went into hiding in plain sight, meaning living strictly in the muggle world, as we wanted nothing to do with those death mongers or whatever they call themselves. We were planning on leaving the wizarding world anyway, as we felt we could do more good in the muggle world. Fearing for our lives just pushed it forward. But as it is, I still have pain every single day and I can't walk for shit. So yes, I'm glad she's no longer on this planet."

She lifted her coffee to tap with his, saying coolly, "May she roast in hell."

Returning the gesture, he muttered, "Amen to that."

**TBC…**

**…**

**And another chapter has come to its end. Thank you to everyone that's taken the time to read/review/follow/favorite! Take care and have yourselves a wish filled day.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, House, or any of their respective characters. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

**Another day, another chapter! Thanks to everyone!**

**Read! Enjoy! Review!**

**…**

**Chapter Seven**

House stood at the railing, looking out to the lobby of the main hospital. Hermione was pushing the cranky professor's chair, who was mostly well now. All of the others that had been there had left the month before. Snape only had minor wounds and was healing up quickly now that the venom was now out of his system. And so he was now going home, wherever that was. Right as they arrived at the doorway, she stopped pushing the wheelchair and turned towards House. A slow smile grew on her face, as she pulled out a balled up piece of paper and threw it up in the air.

His eyes followed it as it unfurled and golden glittery lights erupted from it. It changed little by little until it changed into a papery bluebird that flittered and flew straight over to him. It danced on invisible air currents until it came close enough for it to land on his outstretched finger for just the barest of moments. A jolt of magic went through him and soon the bird was flying away and exploding in midair in a rain of fireworks that had many there ducking.

"Magic," Cuddy said, as she joined him at the rail watching the last of the golden sparks dying away. "I'm still trying to get my head around that." She held out an envelope to him. "Here, Miss Granger gave this to me to give to you." He took it, looking towards the doors, but found that they were already gone. "Well, don't just stand there. Open it!"

He did so to find a short missive in small neat script.

_Dear Dr. House,_

_By the time you read this, we will be gone. Thank you, sir, from the bottom of my heart. I wish there was something that I could do for your leg, but alas all the research I did revealed that it is far too late for nearly anything I could do for you to be anything other than temporary. You have approximately forty-eight hours. Use them well._

_Until we meet again, Miss Hermione Jean Granger, future college student of arithmancy._

"What does she mean that you have forty-eight hours?" Cuddy inquired. "Of what exactly?"

He closed his eyes, even as he put all his weight evenly between both his legs and for the first time in way too many years for him to count, he released his cane. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked over to Cuddy. "I have to have the rest of today and tomorrow off. I'll be back before you know it."

He kept walking away without turning back to the yelling woman. He had to find Wilson and ditch work! A genuine smile lit his face and he went looking for his friend. Time was a wasting!

The End.

**…**

**And so we've come to the end of another story. Thank you to everyone that took the time to read, reviewed, and followed/favorited. The fact that you took the time to do so means a lot. For those who are wondering, this is basically it for this. I have no plans for a sequel or continuing this story. But I never say never, as you can never tell when the muse will strike or how. Thanks once more and until next we meet, ****_vale _****(Latin, look it up!).**


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